Whiley makes history to reach Masters semi-finals
10th November 2013Jordanne Whiley has become the first Brit to ever reach an NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters women’s semi-final after she claimed a 6-2, 6-1 victory in her all-British third and final round-robin match against Lucy Shuker on Friday in Mission Viejo, USA.
The fourth day of play in California also saw Whiley and Japan’s Yui Kamiji book a place in the women’s doubles semi-finals, while Gordon Reid and Frenchman Stephane Houdet ensured their place in the men’s doubles semi-finals in the ITF Wheelchair Doubles Masters. Meanwhile, Antony Cotterill and Adam Field kept their ambitions for a place in the quad doubles final alive with victory in their second of three round-robin matches.
World No. 7 Whiley had beaten world No.2 Sabine Ellerbrock of Germany in her first of three pool matches and Whiley’s victory over Shuker meant that her progress to the last four depended on the result of the other remaining pool match between Dutchwoman Marjolein Buis and Ellerbrock. Buis beat Ellerbrock in three sets to put Whiley through as the runner-up in her pool.
“I’m so delighted, it’s been a great week so far after my opening win over Sabine and I’m really looking forward to giving it my all in the semis,” said Whiley, who will now play Dutch world No. 3 and defending champion Jiske Griffioen later today for a place in Monday’s final.
“I’ve beaten Jiske this season, so that gives me plenty of confidence going into our semi-final, but I know that I’ll need another big performance as she’s also playing well this week,” added Whiley.
For the second year in a row, world No. 8 Shuker will play South Africa’s Kgothatso Montjane for seventh place.
World No. 3 Andy Lapthorne, a finalist in the quad singles at the NEC Masters for the last two years, secured third place this time, beating American world No. 4 Taylor 6-4, 6-4.
Later in the day, Whiley partnered fellow singles semi-finalist Yui Kamiji to a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Ellerbrock and Montjane in their women’s doubles round-robin pool. The Wimbledon finalists and top seeds have now won both of their matches in the three-way pool and will go through to the last four.
Shuker and Buis, the Australian Open runners-up, were edged out in their opening women’s doubles match by Dutch second seeds Griffioen and Sharon Walraven, who claimed a 6-4, 6-4 victory that leaves fourth seeds Buis and Shuker needing to win their final pool match on Saturday against Britain’s Louise Hunt and Japan’s Miho Nijo.
Reid and Houdet also made it two wins from two doubles matches when the top seeds beat third seeds Joachim Gerard of Belgium and Shingo Kunieda of Japan 6-3, 6-3. Reid and Houdet will face Britain’s McCarroll and American Steve Welch in their final round-robin, with McCarroll and Welch still looking for their first win after a narrow 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 loss to Japanese duo Satoshi Saida and Takashi Sanada.
David Phillipson and his Japanese partner Yoshinobu Fujimoto are also still searching for their first men’s doubles win after a 6-3, 6-3 loss to Argentina’s Guillermo Camusso and Gustavo Fernandez.
However, there was better news for Cotterill and Field, who beat Canada’s Adrian Dieleman and Italy’s Antonio Raffaele 7-6(4), 6-2 in their second quad doubles pool match. Cotterill and Field now have a must-win contest against American Greg Hasterok and Canada’s Sarah Hunter later today.
Saturday’s fifth day of play in Mission Viejo will also see world No. 4 Reid play French world No. 7 Michael Jeremiasz for fifth place in the men’s singles.
A total of nine Brits from the Tennis Foundation’s Wheelchair Tennis Performance Programme are contesting the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters and the ITF Wheelchair Doubles Masters in Mission Viejo from 5 - 11 November.